The Spanish Grand Prix witnessed multiple dramatic incidents and plenty of overtakes that caught the attention of fans. However, for Daniel Ricciardo, it was a race to forget once again. McLaren’s start to the season has been a disappointing one, and their woes continued in Barcelona despite bringing in significant upgrades.

In the build-up to the Barcelona race, the Honey Badger would have been optimistic about achieving a much better result than he had at the last few races. Saturday’s qualifying would have further boosted his confidence as he landed in Q3 and beat his teammate Lando Norris.

However, as the lights went out to start the race, there was no pace in the car and the Australian struggled for grip. It was an all too familiar story for him this season. Once again, he had an opportunity, and once again he failed to grab it with both hands.

After the race, Ricciardo was certainly disappointed and hid his frustration with a smile, as he usually does. The McLaren driver gave his thoughts on his struggles after a disappointing evening in Spain.

Daniel Ricciardo reflects on his struggles

Ricciardo started the race well, but once he was overtaken by his teammate Norris, he started drifting away from the points positions. He pitted during lap 11, changing to soft tires, hoping for better grip and pace, but the result was still the same.

A subsequent change to medium tires also did not benefit him. As a result, he did not know what went wrong, and was discontent after the race. He said, “I had four sets of tires today and was very, very slow on all of them. Really sad race.”

Speaking about the reason for the car’s poor pace, Ricciardo stated, “Yeah, everyone came into the weekend curious. You know how they are gonna perform, and it was one of those races that was so slow you kind of really sounds bad to say, like you hope something was wrong.”

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“You hope that we find something that, it’s like ‘oh that’s why’ because it’s probably more concerning if we don’t. As I said, it wasn’t like it was tenths and two-tenths off, it felt like over a second at times.”

“So, I don’t know that for a fact, but I certainly saw the cars past me pull away very quickly. I’m not laughing, but… [painful laugh].”

Can Riccardo and McLaren bounce back in Monaco?

Spanish GP was a kind of race where Ricciardo struggled throughout. In fact, it has been that ‘kind’ of a season for the former Red Bull driver. McLaren came into Spain with massive upgrades and while they worked for his teammate, they just did not favor Ricciardo.

As he races through thick and thin, the Australian will certainly hope to get the best out of the car. “Hopefully, we can get on top of it as the upgrades we brought were good. We’ve got a short turnaround for Monaco and then we’ll go again and hope for a better one in a week,” he conveyed.

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With Monaco GP just around the corner, McLaren and the Honey Badger will look to improve. Can Ricciardo bounce back next week? We will have to wait and watch.